Abstract
Pancreatic amylase (PA) normally appears in duodenal fluids after 4 mos. of age and reaches near adult levels at 8 to 12 mos. Six infants, 8 to 16 mos. old were found to have very low or absent PA. All had chronic diarrhea, bloating and protuberant abdomens. Four patients exhibit growth failure. All had normal peptidases and lipase in their duodenal fluid, negative sweat tests and normal intestinal disaccharidases and glucoamylase. Starch tolerance tests (2gm/kg) were flat in 5 patients tested at the time of diagnosis and 4 developed diarrhea following the test. Feeding of amylose and amylopectin to 3 patients for 1 mo. failed to induce a change in duodenal PA activity and all 3 developed loose stools. To find out if the lack of PA activity is related to an inactive or absent enzyme, PA from human duodenal fluid was purified and antisera against the enzymes were raised in rabbits. The antisera were specific against amylase. It did not cross react with trypsinogen or lipase and showed single precipitant band when tested against control duodenal fluids. Duodenal fluid from amylase deficient patients did not compete with control duodenal fluids in immuno-precipitation assay using these antisera. This suggests the absence of immuno-cross-reacting material to anti-amylase in the duodenal fluid from amylase deficient patients. All patients had their amylase level returned to near normal at the age of 16 to 30 months and showed cross reacting material to antiamylase in their duodenal fluids.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lebenthal, E., Lee, P. & Rossi, T. 584 STARCH INTOLERANCE AND TRANSIENT AMYLASE DEFICIENCY AS A CAUSE OF CHRONIC DIARRHEA IN INFANCY. Pediatr Res 15 (Suppl 4), 538 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-00597
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-00597